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Karl Anderson
|birth_place = Asheville, North Carolina |death_date = |death_place = |resides = |billed = Pipestone, Minnesota |trainer = Roger Ruffen |debut = May 10, 2002 |retired = }} Chad Allegra (January 18, 1980) is an American professional wrestler better known by his stage name Karl "Machine Gun" Anderson currently working for New Japan Pro Wrestling, where he is a former IWGP Tag Team Champion, holding the record for the longest reign and the most defenses with partner Giant Bernard. Anderson and Bernard are also former Pro Wrestling Noah's GHC Tag Team Champions. Personal life Allegra grew up in Asheville, North Carolina with his younger brother and mother. He received a baseball scholarship to study at Mars Hill College in his home state before dropping out to pursue a wrestling career. Upon moving to Cincinnati, Ohio he began training at Les Thatcher's Main Event Pro Wrestling Camp, the school associated with the Heartland Wrestling Association. Professional wrestling career Shortly after beginning his training in 2000, he received a concussion at the hands of fellow trainee Derek Neikirk, which put Allegra on the shelf for over a year. When he finally felt that he was able to return, he contacted Kirk Sheppard who worked for the Northern Wrestling Federation in Cincinnati, who introduced him to Roger Ruffen, the head trainer at BoneKrushers (the NWF's wrestling school). Allegra trained for several months before debuting under his real name in his first professional match on May 10, 2002 in a losing encounter with The Zodiac. His second match was against Prince Justice, who is now better known as TNA's Abyss. He also had matches with The Boogie Woogie Man Jimmy Valiant, Chris Harris, Shark Boy, and Jerry Lawler in the early stages of his career. In the NWF, Allegra started as part of the Young Lions, a four-man group of popular rookies who entered the promotion at about the same time. First to leave the group was Matt Parks. Allegra eventually joined Parks as a heel and began a memorable feud with Ryan Stone and Jay Donaldson. In the summer of 2005, the NWF and the HWA began an interpromotional feud. It culminated in a one on one, title vs. title match between Allegra, the NWF Champion, and Cody Hawk, the HWA champion. In October 2005, Allegra had the opportunity to wrestle at the National Wrestling Alliance's Annual Convention where he was noticed by Dave Marquez of the New Japan Pro Wrestling Dojo. Allegra was invited to train at the dojo in Los Angeles and so after losing the NWF title to Ryan Stone on January 1, 2006, Allegra began living and wrestling on the West Coast. On the West Coast, Allegra was repackaged as "Machine Gun" Karl Anderson, becoming a storyline member of the Anderson wrestling family and adopting the family's trademark spinebuster as his new finishing maneuver. Before long, he won the NWA British Commonwealth Championship before losing it to Alex Koslov. Anderson makes occasional visits in the Midwest, making cameos for Ruffen's NWF when he is able and is the current NWA Heartland States Champion for Ed Chuman's NWA Midwest promotion. In 2007, he began teaming with Joey Ryan, on NWA cards promoted by David Marquez. He appeared weekly on MavTV, a small broadcast network, carried on limited stations. In early 2007 he debuted for Pro Wrestling Guerrilla (PWG), building his reputation as a wrestler, and picking up a big win over Colt Cabana on March 10. On July 8, 2007, he and Ryan won a 3-way tag match to claim the vacant NWA World Tag Team Championship. As part of the new talent exchange agreement between the NWA and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Anderson replaced Yugi Nagata on March 23, 2008 in the annual New Japan Cup tournament. His opponent in the first round was New Japan's junior heavyweight division ace, Koji Kanemoto. Anderson lost that match due to submission. Anderson then joined New Japan's top heel stable Great Bash Heel (GBH) and spent the rest of the year wrestling in midcards of NJPW events. After a jump from GBH to CHAOS, Anderson formed the tag team Bad Intentions with Giant Bernard and on June 20 the two of them received a shot at the IWGP Tag Team Championship, but were unable to defeat the defending champions Team 3D (Brother Ray and Brother Devon). Anderson and Bernard entered the 2009 G1 Climax Tag League and were able to defeat Apollo 55 (Prince Devitt and Ryusuke Taguchi) in the finals to win the tournament and earn another shot at Team 3D. On November 8 the second match between Bad Intentions and Team 3D ended in a double count out. On April 4, 2010, CHAOS members Toru Yano and Takashi Iizuka turned on Anderson and kicked him out of the stable with help from Tetsuya Naitō and Yujiro Takahashi, who joined the stable in the process. Giant Bernard, who wasn't present at the show, ended up leaving CHAOS alongside his tag team partner. On June 19, 2010, Anderson and Bernard defeated the teams of Blue Justice Army (Yuji Nagata and Wataru Inoue) and No Limit (Tetsuya Naitō and Yujiro Takahashi) in a three-way elimination match to win the IWGP Tag Team Championship. Bad Intentions made their first successful defense of the IWGP Tag Team Championship on July 19, defeating the Blue Justice Army and No Limit in a three-way "Dogfight". In late October Bad Intentions entered the 2010 G1 Climax Tag League, where, after three wins and two losses, they finished second in their block and advanced to the semifinals, where, on November 7, they were defeated by the eventual winners of the whole tournament, Yuji Nagata and Wataru Inoue. On January 4, 2011, at Wrestle Kingdom V in Tokyo Dome, Bad Intentions successfully defended the IWGP Tag Team Championship in a three–way match against Beer Money, Inc. (James Storm and Robert Roode) and Muscle Orchestra (Manabu Nakanishi and Strong Man). On May 3, Bad Intentions defeated No Limit to make their seventh successful IWGP Tag Team Championship defense, tying the all–time record for most defenses, set by Hiroyoshi Tenzan and Masahiro Chono. Bad Intentions made their record breaking eight successful IWGP Tag Team Championship defense on June 18 against Pro Wrestling Noah's Takuma Sano and Yoshihiro Takayama, and in the process also became the new GHC Tag Team Champions. Bad Intentions' ninth successful IWGP Tag Team Championship defense took place on July 3, when they defeated Hirooki Goto and IWGP Heavyweight Champion Hiroshi Tanahashi. On July 23, Bad Intentions made an appearance for Pro Wrestling Noah, making their first successful defense of the GHC Tag Team Championship against the team of Takeshi Morishima and Yutaka Yoshie. On September 9, Bad Intentions became the longest reigning IWGP Tag Team Champions in history by breaking the previous record of 446 days, set by Hiroyoshi Tenzan and Masahiro Chono in 2003. Bad Intentions made their second GHC Tag Team Championship defense on October 31, defeating Go Shiozaki and Shuhei Taniguchi at a Pro Wrestling Noah event. During New Japan's 2011 G1 Climax Tag League, Bad Intentions suffered their first tag team loss in a year, when they were defeated by the Complete Players (Masato Tanaka and Yujiro Takahashi), but still managed to win their four other matches and advance to the semifinals of the tournament. On November 6, after defeating the Billion Powers (Hirooki Goto and Hiroshi Tanahashi) in the semifinals, Bad Intentions was defeated in the finals of the 2011 G1 Climax by the Suzukigun (Minoru Suzuki and Lance Archer). On November 12, Bad Intentions made their tenth successful IWGP Tag Team Championship defense against Archer and Suzuki. On January 4, 2012, at Wrestle Kingdom VI in Tokyo Dome, Bad Intentions lost the IWGP Tag Team Championship to Ten-Koji (Hiroyoshi Tenzan and Satoshi Kojima), ending their record-setting reign at 564 days. On January 22, Bad Intentions lost the GHC Tag Team Championship to Akitoshi Saito and Jun Akiyama. In March, Bad Intentions was disbanded, after Bernard left New Japan to return to the WWE. Launching his New Japan singles career, Anderson entered the 2012 New Japan Cup on April 1. After victories over Hiroyoshi Tenzan and multi-time IWGP Heavyweight Champion Shinsuke Nakamura, arguably the biggest win of his career, he was eliminated from the tournament in the semifinals by Hiroshi Tanahashi. On May 3 at Wrestling Dontaku 2012, Nakamura defeated Anderson in a rematch. In August, Anderson took part in the 2012 G1 Climax tournament, where he won four out of his first seven matches, before scoring an upset win over IWGP Heavyweight Champion Hiroshi Tanahashi on August 12, the final day of the tournament, to win his block and advance to the finals. In the finals, which was held immediately after Anderson's win over Tanahashi, Anderson was defeated by Kazuchika Okada. In wrestling *'Finishing moves' :*'As Karl Anderson' ::*''Gun Stun'' (Three-quarter facelock dropped into either a seated jawbreaker or a bulldog) – NJPW ::*Spinning spinebuster :*'As Chad 2 Badd' ::*''Baddest Kick in the World'' (Running big boot) ::*''Too Badd'' (Diving neckbreaker) *'Signature moves' :*Backbreaker :*Backbreaker rack :*Boston crab :*Brainbuster :*Death Valley driver :*German suplex :*Knife–edged chop :*Leg lariat :*Military press slam :*Piledriver :*Samoan drop :*Scoop powerslam :*Sitout powerbomb :*Sitout scoop slam piledriver :*Spear :*Superkick :*Superplex :*Top rope dive into either a clothesline or a headbutt *'Nicknames' :*"2 Badd" :*'"Machine Gun' Championships and accomplishments *'Empire Wrestling Federation' :*EWF American Championship (1 time) *'National Wrestling Alliance' :*NWA World Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Joey Ryan *'NWA Midwest' :*NWA Heartland States Heavyweight Championship (1 time) *'NWA United Kingdom' :*NWA British Commonwealth Heavyweight Championship (1 time) *'New Japan Pro Wrestling' :*IWGP Tag Team Championship (2 times, current) - with Giant Bernard (1) and Doc Gallows (1, current) :*G1 Climax Tag League (2009) - with Giant Bernard :* World Tag League (2012) - with Hirooki Goto :* World Tag League (2013) - With Doc Gallows *'Northern Wrestling Federation' :*NWF Heavyweight Championship (2 times) :*NWF Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Jay Donaldson *'Pro Wrestling Illustrated' :*PWI ranked him #'122' of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 2010 External links *Karl Anderson official website *Karl Anderson at the Internet Movie Database Category:American wrestlers Category:North Carolina wrestlers Category:1980 births Category:2002 debuts Category:All Japan Pro Wrestling alumni Category:All Pro Wrestling alumni Category:Alternative Wrestling Show alumni Category:Border City Wrestling alumni Category:Buckeye Pro Wrestling alumni Category:Empire Wrestling Federation alumni Category:Heartland Wrestling Association alumni Category:High Risk Wrestling alumni Category:International Championship Wrestling alumni Category:IWA Mid-South alumni Category:Lucha VaVoom alumni Category:Mach One Pro Wrestling alumni Category:National Wrestling Alliance alumni Category:New Japan Dojo alumni Category:New Japan Pro Wrestling current roster Category:New Wave Pro Wrestling alumni Category:North American Wrestling alumni Category:NWA Ireland alumni Category:NWA Midwest alumni Category:NWA On Fire alumni Category:NWA Pro Wrestling alumni Category:Ohio Championship Wrestling alumni Category:Pro Wrestling Guerrilla alumni Category:Pro Wrestling NOAH alumni Category:Pro Wrestling ZERO1 alumni Category:Revolution Pro Wrestling current roster Category:Riki Pro alumni Category:Ring of Honor current roster Category:Rising Phoenix Wrestling alumni Category:SoCal Pro Wrestling alumni Category:Viva La Lucha! alumni Category:Westside Xtreme Wrestling alumni Category:Wild West Championship Wrestling alumni Category:Wrestle Rampage alumni